Chemical characterization of olive oils from Karaburun Peninsula

Abstract

Chemical characteristics of olive oils produced from Erkence olive variety that is mainly grown around Karaburun Peninsula of İzmir have not been investigated thoroughly although this variety has high oil content and ripens earlier compared to other olive types. Identifying the chemical characteristics of olive oils could be useful to obtain geographical indication labelling for olive oils produced from this variety. Aim of this study is to determine some important chemical characteristics of olive oils from Erkence olive variety produced in Karaburun region and to investigate the differences in olive oils that come from various parts of the Peninsula using chemometric techniques as principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least square (PLS) regression. For this purpose, total phenolic content, fatty acid profile, phenolic profile, total carotene and chlorophyll contents and oxidative stability of 64 olive oils were determined. FTIR spectra for these oils were also evaluated. According to PCA results, classification with respect to geographical origin was relatively more successful with FTIR analysis while phenolic and fatty acid profiles did not result very satisfactory separation between regions. Moreover, FTIR spectra and various chemical parameters were used to predict oxidative stability of all olive oil samples. Oxidative stability was predicted successfully from IR spectra whereas prediction from chemical parameters was not that successful. IR spectra were also used to predict various chemical parameters. As a result of PLS regression; chlorophyll and carotenoid, some individual phenolic components (pcoumaric, hydroxtyrosol) and some major fatty acids (oleic, linoleic and palmitic) were predicted.